Bergville Things to Do

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This little "village" is approx 15km outside of Bergville. It is really a fun place to go and walk around. They have various shops here, a restaurant, playground for the children and they seem to turn everything into art.

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Another large mass grave can be found separate from those soldiers buried amongst the British trench. These men were mostly part of the Royal Lancaster Regiment. Losses were listed as about 343 British dead with another 563 wounded and 187 captured as opposed to 68 Boer dead and 134 wounded. Either way, it was a long ways from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal and infinitely further from the green hills of England.

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History is remembered in different ways by which outlook has. The British monument was put on the hill first - they lost the battle but won the war. But years after the war was won, Boers eventually reversed the results of the war. A second interpretation of the battle was given. Spion Kop entered into the Afrikaner mythology along with Blood River and Majuba. The monument here denotes the Boer units - commandos - and officers who found action here. Biblical passages give deeper meaning to those who fought on the losing side of the Second War for Freedom.

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Approximately 70 Boers died here in the fighting and of the Boer graves on Spion Kop, none of the men were identified. Identification of dead soldiers after a battle is a fairly recent phenomenom. For example, during the American Civil War, soldiers would put pieces of paper in their pockets with their names and addresses so they might be identified if they were killed in battle. British soldiers had metal identification tabs in their jackets, but the jackets were removed early on during the fighting in the summer heat.

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These little peaks on the northeast side of Spion Kop allowed the Boers - riflemen on the Aloe Knoll and several field guns situated on the Twin Peaks - to lay a wicked fire down upon the British positions atop Spion Kop. Boer flanking attacks from the Knoll were beaten off. Late in the day, another British force not connected with those atop Spion Kop, drove the Boers off the twin Peaks. This should have ensured the British hold on the peak. Positions on Spion Kop had steadied by the mid afternoon. With darkness, both sides retreated unaware of what the other side was doing or how badly they had been hurt. In the morning, finding the British gone, the Boers reoccupied the hill and another British defeat was in the books.

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Effective Boer crossfire, Boer direct pressure, heat and lack of water forced the British slowly back from to their trench by noon. General Woodgate himself was mortally wounded and the British didn’t know who was in command for awhile. Heat and casualties began to wear on the British troops with nearly 200 Lancashire Fusiliers surrendering around 1 pm, threatening the entire British line. Timely reinforcements, of which the Imperial Light Infantry was a part of, managed to steady the situation.

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The British Monument is located near where General Woodgate had his headquarters. The monument commemorates the sacrifices of the different units and men who fought here on the Imperial side. It represents the first interpretation of the battle - the British version, a version of glory in sacrifice. Individual monuments can be erected by surviving family and friends though they do not necessarily accurately denote the final resting spot of the honored individual since most soldier’s identity was never known at the time of internment.

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These mass graves are the final resting place for many from the Lancashire Fusiliers. After the battle, the dead were buried in what remained of the British trenches. Both Boer and Briton lie in unknown graves as there was little way the bodies could be identified after battle.